The European Parliament has given its final approval to the EU AI Act, making it one of the world’s first comprehensive AI regulations. The bill will undergo a second vote in April and is expected to be published in the Official Journal of the European Union in May. The EU AI Act categorizes machine learning models into four groups based on the level of risk they pose, with high-risk models subject to the strictest rules. Applications considered “high-risk” include critical infrastructures, education and training, safety components of products, essential public and private services, law enforcement, migration and border control, and administration of justice and democratic processes.
In addition, EU financial regulators are planning to introduce more guidelines for stablecoin regulation under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) framework. They will publish draft regulatory standards for stablecoin issuers to handle complaints effectively. The European Banking Authority has already released the Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) for resolving complaints by asset reference token (ART) holders, outlining the procedures and standards for stablecoin issuers.
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden has proposed a 30% tax on electricity used by cryptocurrency miners in his administration’s budget proposal for 2025. This tax would require crypto mining companies to report the amount and type of electricity they use. It would also mandate miners who lease computational capacity to report the value of the electricity provided by the leasing company. The tax would be implemented in three phases, starting at 10% in the first year and increasing to 30% in the third year.
Nigeria is pressuring Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange, to disclose information about its top 100 users in the country as part of an ongoing crackdown. Nigerian authorities have also requested Binance’s transaction history for the past six months. In response, Binance executives Tigran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla have been detained. Despite delisting naira transactions and stopping peer-to-peer naira transactions, Binance’s actions have not appeased the government. Opinions within the local crypto community are divided, with some supporting the government’s actions and others disagreeing.
The Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), a special economic zone, has enacted a comprehensive digital assets law. The DIFC, which operates under its own legal system based on English law, has also made amendments to existing laws. The Digital Assets Law, which consists of seven pages of text, includes provisions that make electronic records equivalent to paper records.
Democratic Party Senators Jack Reed and Laphonza Butler have expressed their opposition to the approval of any more crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). They argue that allowing further approvals would expose investors to thinly traded markets prone to fraud and manipulation. While eight proposed spot Ether ETF applications await SEC approval, there is hope that other altcoins could follow. Reed and Butler also urged the SEC not to set a precedent with the recent approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs, claiming that the Bitcoin market, despite its weaknesses, is more established and well-regulated compared to smaller cryptocurrencies.